The acrimonious feud between two of Hollywood's best-known film directors reached a new level of name-calling and accusation at the weekend as Spike Lee invoked America's bitter legacy of slavery in response to Clint Eastwood's comments to the Guardian on Friday.

A United States federal judge has sentenced Hollywood actor Wesley Snipes to three years in prison for failing to file tax returns from 1999 to 2004. Judge William Terrell Hodges laid down the harshest possible sentence on Thursday against Snipes (45) after the star of Demolition Man was found guilty on three misdemeanour counts.

United States television magnate Oprah Winfrey said on Monday that abuse charges at her all-girl academy in Johannesburg was one of the most devastating experiences in her life. "This has been one of the most devastating, if not the most devastating, experiences of my life," she said in a video news conference from Chicago.

South African police are investigating alleged abuses at billionaire United States television magnate Oprah Winfrey's all-girl leadership academy, a police spokesperson said on Wednesday. Rapport newspaper has reported a matron at the school allegedly fondled one of the pupils, and grabbed a girl by the throat and threw her against a wall.

Oprah Winfrey has met with the family of the first pupil to complain of abuse at her elite school for disadvantaged South African girls, and invited the girl to return to the academy. The United States magazine People quoted the father of the pupil as saying they met for two hours with Winfrey on Sunday.

A former dormitory employee at the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in Johannesburg was released on R3Ã‚Â 000 bail by the Sebokeng Magistrate's Court on Monday. Virginia Mokgobo was arrested on charges of indecent assault, assault and crimen injuria.